Page 1 of 1 Running as Scuderia Toro Rosso and under the umbrella of Red Bull Racing for the seventh season, it was all change at the Italian team for 2012. Longterm drivers Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersari were replaced by talented rookies Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne. They were both promoted to the race seats not in search of immediate success but to groom for a potential future at Red Bull Racing, as such justifying the existing of the Toro Rosso team.

Ricciardo and Vergne were tasked to drive the STR7, which was the third car developed by the team completely independently from Red Bull Racing. With relatively few rule changes between the 2011 and 2012 season, it was only natural for the STR7 to be a development of the STR6, which was also designed by the Giorgio Ascanelli led team. Built around a conventional carbon fibre monocoque, it boasted push-rod actuated springs and dampers at the front and pull-rods at the rear for aerodynamic efficiency. The naturally aspirated V8 engine was supplied by long-term partner Ferrari.

The season started off well with Ricciardo and Vergne scoring points in the opening two rounds of the World Championship. After the promising start, things went downhill and it took until the Belgium Grand Prix in August before more points were scored, with Ricciardo and Vergne finishing ninth and eighth respectively. Although more points were scored in the final races of the season, resulting in a total of 26, Scuderia Toro Rosso could do no better than ninth in the championship, beating only the three 'new' teams, who scored no points at all.

As a consequence of the poor results, Ascanelli was replaced by James Key halfway through the season. The resulting STR8 only managed to perform marginally better, scoring 33 points in 2013, which was good for eighth in the championship. Toro Rosso did live up to its original purpose as Daniel Ricciardo was signed to drive for Red Bull Racing in 2014, replacing his compatriot Mark Webber. Page 1 of 1